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2016/08/31

Not too long ago I was at Van Der Linde art supply store in Amsterdam and I noticed they had a whole section of these Fabriano EcoQua notebooks on sale for 50% off! Yeah, I was itching to buy one and then I remembered the promise I made to myself; not to buy more new notebooks, unless I would do an actual review on it. So that's what I did! It's a hand written review and I've tested it with fountain pens and various other pens like copics, fineliners, sharpies, and even blo-pens (I still have a set from like 15 years ago....).

I chose the A5 dotted and glued on the long side notebook because of this color! Gorgeous deep purple color that reminded me of Montblanc Lavender Purple. I had my Pelikan M350 inked with de Atramentis Aubergine and that is what I used for the pro's and cons list of the written review.

This pen and ink combo showed a lot of ghosting and some bleed through while other combinations did not at all! All the pens and ink combo below showed almost no ghosting or none bled through!

The ink held up pretty well, even the flex with the waterman had no feathering! Also I have brought back my Raden VP into rotation and I am getting used to the clip/grip situation :)

I also tested a bunch of other pens and yeah that is some pretty well behaved paper! It's toothier than Tomoe River for sure, but I think you can definitely compare it to Leuchtturm paper, though that is a bit smoother to the touch. I had fun doing the above page. In the end i took my Blo-Pens out and spattered some ink over it :D

To show you the ghosting/bleed through, saturated ink/pen combo's like my Pelikan M350 and DA Aubergine leaves a mark on the flip side, as do alcohol based markers like Copic, Letraset and sharpies. But other than that, pretty clean flip side pages so with the right pen, it can definitely be used for double sided writing!

In conclusion, for only 1,55€ (which is the sale price at Van der Linde) you have an excellent A5 fountain pen friendly versatile notebook in one of 8 pretty colors! There are more sizes out there and I might pick up a set of pocket size notebooks next time I am near the store!

2016/08/26

The month is nearly over, but there is still some time left to participate in Viva Las VegaStamps august challenge. I let myself be inspired by these words from their inspiration post: bold, bright, intuitive, strong, women, feminine, artsy, splatter, script, polka dots, pink, teal, lime green, white,black, stencils. Last month I also ordered a bunch of stamps through their anniversary sale (free shipping and discount = me ordering 5 plates and some loose stamps!) so I have no excuse not to participate in this month's challenge as well ;)

I chose to do a spread in my mini art journal and I knew for the august challenge I wanted to use the Whimsical Lady Grey stamp from the last release a design by Mary Vogel Lozinac with a few from the Mixed Media plate from the april release. A full list of stamps and materials I used are listed below. Lady Grey looks like she could be starring in Bojack Horseman which I have been watching episodes of recently. Such a fun show! Anyhow, on to my art journal spread...

The size of my mini art journal is about pocket fieldnotes/moliskine size, but I chose to work on A5 size paper (120gms smooth project paper from Paperchase) on which I had already stamped the Artemio Silhouette flowers with Heroarts Ombre in neon pinks. I gave the flowers a bit of shadow and also stamped them with Staz-on Dove grey. I stamped lady grey, colored her in with letraset promarkers and masked her before adding more interest to the page with mixed media stamps and dylusions sprays and stencils.

I got inspired by the circle and handwritten text on the inspiration post so I wrote some "she was a dreamer, a champion and courageous" around the circle and paired it with the sentiment "she was a wildflower" text stamp. I also added some ink spatters with Liquitex inks in White and black on the edges of the page.

Time for the big reveal and I took off the mask from Lady Grey! I always love this part, and it doesn't look to shabby! I traced the sentiment with my faber castell Pitt artist pen and also underlined it. Then it was time to place the page in my journal!

After I sized up the spread, cut and glued it into place, I took out my distress crayons to give more interest to the page. I drew more circles around the circle stamps with pink, colored the plants with teal and green and added some grey accents near Lady Grey's feet so she looks a bit more "grounded". I also used white and grey crayons to try to make the wildflower sentiment pop out a bit. And then I decided I should actually put a wildflower on the page.

I thought that the Whimsical Seed pod from the same plate would make an excellent addition. Colored it in with Letraset promarkers in pinks, to make a contrast with the green and teal and adhered it to the piece. I use sticker paper for this so I would not have to use glue and that always works like a charm! To finish the piece I used the stitching lines stamp as a border in memento black. I'm really happy how the spread turned out and I'm loving the format/size of the mini journal a lot too :)

It was absolutely amazing and encouraging to have been chosen one of the VLVS July challenge winners! I am excited to see what fun stamps are in the grab bag they sent me :) Of course I hope to win again, but it's really fun just to get inspired and create something! I hardly use pinks in my work so this was a fun step out of my comfort zone. Here's the inspiration board and if you want to join in, just click the picture and add a link to your work on the challenge page :)

2016/08/24

Yes, the above pic may or may not contain spoilers ;) But July box is sold out and the August boxes have been shipped, so this review has been a little bit over due but I wanted to share it and my thoughts about it with you at any rate.

I've been following Spotlight Stationery (a (bi)monthly stationery subscription box service based in the UK) on Instagram for a while now and then they posted a while back that they still had one July box left, I grabbed that chance with both hands (also because the spoiler photo had something Turquoise in it and yeah how can I let that pass me by?!) Mary from Spotlight Stationery crew kindly let me buy the box as a one-off, which I really appreciate as I was on the fence to get a subscription right away. So thank you again, Mary! The boxes are 25£ plus postage and packaging (UK: £2.00 Europe: £5.25 Rest of the world: £7.50) So I paid the equivalent of 36€ including PP and a few days later I had this waiting for me in my mailbox:

It looked well stuffed and I was beyond excited to open it!

The goodies came in nicely packaged in tissue paper and looks very stylish with their logo and slogan "Indulge your passion for stationery" which I certainly did!

And these are the contents of the July box; I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was Rhodia themed!

The set included (pricing is based on uk webstore prices upon googling the items): 2 staple bound small pocket notebooks (grid) (2£ for both), triangle orange pencil (1,50£), soft black leather pencil case (10£ but a seemingly hard item to find as it's out of stock in most stores...) and the turquoise thing I was so curious about is a soft cover Rhodiarama A5 notebook in dot grid (13,75£) which I always wanted to try out! So I was super thrilled to find that in the box. Also I have to note that this was a departure from their usual boxes as they made it themed based on a brand. I definitely like this idea and I hope they will do that again in the future!

What I also like about this subscription box is that you get an assortment of postcards by young/up and coming artists along with it. There are some really talented people out there and I always love to support indie illustrators and by getting a Spotlight Stationery box you are also helping a charity. For every box they ship they will make a donation to National Star, a charity working with young people with disabilities and acquired brain injuries. I don't know about you, but for me this does lessen the guilt of buying or as they put it "indulging" in buying more stationery. Well played Spotlight Stationery team, well played!

I am definitely happy with the content of my first ever (no I kid you not!) surprise stationery box purchase. (I haven't done subscriptions ever since I stopped with the Inkdrop offered by Goulet pens back in the day) I definitely think that the cost of the box is well worth the content in this case. The summed up amount is 27,50£ and that isn't even included the postcards. Lets say those are 2£ each and then the total would be 35,25£ which what you pay for the box incl. shipping to the EU! So if you like the content of the box as much as I do it is definitely worth it IMHO.

The question I am struggling with though is will I get a subscription? Will I indeed subscribe to indulge in my stationery needs? The thing is, while I do like surprises, I also like knowing what I will get and what I like about Spotlight Stationery they also offer their past boxes as a one-off buy. I have not made up my mind about this yet, but as I typed this I have noticed they still had one of the August boxes left! Which is a total surprise as I have not seen any spoiler pics of the content yet. So I went ahead and got that one as well and I'm going to wait and see the August box content before I do subscribe.

If you want to subscribe, when you register for their email news letter, you will get a discount code for 15% off on your first box. Yeah I also have no idea what I am waiting for really, it's such a good deal... maybe it's the fact that I am still thinking - do I really need all this stationery as my closets are overflowing with notebooks I have not even used yet. Well maybe I should make a conscious effort to do so and do some more stationery related reviews!

At any rate, I hope this review was useful to you if you are considering to subscribe to the Spotlight Stationery box yourself. Thanks for stopping by and have great day!

namastéDisclaimer: I was not in any way compensated by Spotlight Stationery for this review. There are no affiliated links and the opinions reflected above are completely my own.

2016/08/22

It's high time for another Meesha Monday post. This sweetheart has been an excellent nurse to me while I was recovering from the bronchitis infection. She never left my side! Also at the end of the cute kitty picture spam I am announcing the winners of the Masterboard Mailart Monday giveaway. So read on if you want to know if you are one of them :)

Sleeping next to me while all I could do was either lay down on the bed or pass out on the couch.

There were not many hot days, but when it was too much to bare she was just tuckered out and laying flat on the floor. She and the fan are not best buds but she can appreciate a cool breeze from afar.

She likes sleeping in the tubs/tiles, and this was just the funniest sight ever!!

I made some closet space for her in my art room and I love it that she joins me when I am working on my stuff there.

And after all this cuteness cat picture overload, high time to choose the winners of my giveaway! Thanks to everyone whom participated! The winners are S.Jane and Gerrina !! Congrats gals!! If you would send me an email at miss.thundercat @ gmail.com (without spaces) with your mailing address I will send you each an inspiration card this week :)

2016/08/21

When I was recovering from a nasty bronchitis this month, I hardly had any creative energy but I still wanted to do my monthly update in my Midori Traveler's Notebook. Because I wasn't feeling super creative, but still wanted a pretty colorful page, I thought of a "cheat" and adhered one of my gelli prints I had done on tracing paper to the midori notebook.

And this is the result. I only added a few extra art stickers here and there, outlined the month, days and dates with a white gelpen to create some interest and that is it! Simple, quick and effective! I might use this method more often in the future. The canson tracing paper holds up fountian pen and other inks really well!

Some close up shots:

At the end of the month I had a ton of work to do on an assignment I wasn't to pleased with, so I just wanted that week to move along quickly! I had that sticker with artwork from Annette Mangseth a while now and am pleased I was able to finally use it :)

Last month I also bought some amazing artwork by Sarah Jane Mills, as I am a fan of her AstroGirl. She does this awesome "quote Monday" thing on her blog where she draws Astro girl (most of the time) and pairs it with a fun quote. So this bit of the page is sort of an hommage to her. The sticker was in the art pack I bought and thought the quote " And so being young and dipped in folly, I fell inlove with Melancholy" by Edgar Allan Poe captured the mood of this particular pose of Astrogirl.

This is the full art pack I bought from Sarah Jane's Big Cartel shop: sticker packs, Sehnsucht zine (so wondefully melancholic!) and a surprise pack or prints. I esp love the one on the top right corner. Sarah was so sweet to include an original ACEO of Astrogirl, which I swooned over!! If you like her style, I urge you to check out her blog and store :)

In little over a week, august will be over and this month has been pretty un eventful so far. BUT I am SO looking forward to the last weekend as the Amsterdam Comic Con will be held then! We already got our tickets and I'm excited to see James Marsters and Julie Benz in the flesh :) I have been a long time Buffy and Angel fan, so I'm geeking out! So might I possibly have a fun update for august after all? I definitely do hope so :)

2016/08/20

After weeks of feeling crappy and not having the energy to do much creatively, I finally made an effort today to make something in my mini art journal. I sorta had to as this is my day to post an inspiration page on the Inkadinkadutchies FB page with stamps from Lost Coast Designs. I got inspired by "Fan Girl" which is the main image I used for my spread. I love the art deco swirls and wanted to depict her like the comic character Poison Ivy. I did two takes on her, stamped her on 160gms white stamping paper first with memento black and the second with cotton ivy green. I colored her in with Letraset Tria Promarkers as with the detailler tip you can really get into the swirls of the hair. Some close up pictures:

Poison Ivy originally has red hair. But in some versions she is also completely green. Like the depiction below.

I cut the images out and adhered then to the background made out of lot of different layers: marbled page on which I stamped the Grunge, loopy calligraphy and fruit pods background stamps in various colors of green and dark blue. I also love my new OMBRE stamp pad from HeroArts.

In the end I also spattered some liquid acrylics from Liquitex INKS! in white and gold to give the page more interest. I'm really happy how it turned out :) How wonderful it was to spend some time in my art room again!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Namasté

PS: Also don't forget my Masterboard Mailart Giveway ends tomorrow! Just leave a comment at the blogpost to be entered for the giveaway :)

2016/08/11

I can honestly say that I really surprised myself and managed to finish the cards last weekend (even though I was pretty ill with a throat infection/flue type and could do much creative work at all last week!) The last prompts had a few tough ones for me because I couldn't come up with a lot of different stuff. But well I did my best and that is all you can do, right? So here they are, the last prompts of the CZC 2016:

CZC54-Use a selfmade stencil

The flower is a stencil I made with the MM Slice. Bakcground is made with various distress stains and designs by Rynn Texture stamps. The floral silhouette woman is from Lost coast Designs. I stamped her onto a separate paper and adhered her to the piece. Traced with a fineliner to make her more pronounced.

CZC55 - your hero/person you admire

for me that is Vincent Van Gogh.

You can read how I created this piece in my previous Mailart Monday (also do not forget the giveaway!!)

CZC56 use watercolor paint - version 1

CZC56 use watercolor paint

I used a large stamp and painted over with gouache/aqruarelle paint and stamped it on the card stock. Then I painted more/different colors to finish the piece. Version 2

CZC57 Hands

was not too inspired for this one, but LCD has some great images I wanted to use.

an ink spatted background on which I stamped carabelle and katzelkraft stamps. The hand images are from Lost Coast Designs and I stamped them on sticker paper, colored, cut and adhered them to the piece.

CZC58 Reflection

Another stencil I made with the MM Slice. The background is made with various purple distress stains and I spattered white acrylic paint over it. Then I used the stencil and dark purple memento ink and a distress tool to sponge the ink through the stencil. Looks like portraits of galaxies. This might be one of my fave pieces I have done in the challenge.

CZC59 - Use a transfer technique

I used two: the gel transfer of the image in the middle and the gelli plate packing tape transfer on the borders. I adhered it all to a marbled bookpage. stamps from VLVs and Studio Light.

2016/08/08

Last week I showed you a group shot of outgoing mail and I wanted to show you a closer look of the Masterboard Inspiration cards I made for this swap on swapbot.

First let me answer "what is a masterboard?" I think Ann in this blogpost on Wonderstange says it best "a masterboard is a great big multi-layered background that you cut up to make smaller pieces: postcards (4″x6″), ATCs (3.5″x2.5″), inchies (1″x1″), chunkies (4″x4″), and other forms of mailart with fun names." And that is exactly what I did when making the cards below.

I took an A4 page which was already party covered in ink residue and stamped with large back ground stamps, layered with stencils and paint and then cut them up into 4 pieces. I chose to pair the portrait stamps from Carmen's Veranda with Lost Coast Designs dictionary words and create 4 inspiration mail art cards. I stamped them all with Staz-On black but it wasn't black enough for my liking, so I traced the images with a sharpie to make it more pronounced black.

In the end I also spattered some liquid acrylics in gold, bronze, silver metallic and white onto the cards to make it more interesting. What I love about masterboards is that you cam make a lot of cards in a small amount of time.

The bottom two already were mailed out for the swap, but the top two I still have available and I decided to do a fun giveaway for them. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I'll pick two entries and mail out one card to each. I will pick the winners on Monday 22nd so in 2 weeks from now. If you have a preference of Poe or Dali, let me know that in the comments to and I might just grant your request :)

Hope this inspired you to create some master board mail art cards yourself.